


The Halloween Ball

by Canadiantardis



Series: Plance Hallo-week 2018 [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Ballroom Dancing, Costume Parties & Masquerades, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Halloween, One Shot, Slow Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-09 18:21:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16455002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: Plance Hallo-week 2k18 Day 4: Halloween/Masks





	The Halloween Ball

Katie struggled to listen to her teacher, her mind abuzz for the event in the evening. She, Allura, and a couple other girls were going to the biggest ball of the year in town, the Halloween Ball. While the children ran about in costumes of witches or ghosts or their favourite characters, trick-or-treating, anyone who was anyone would be attending the ball.

While she wasn’t one for parties or dances in general, the Halloween Ball was different. From what Romelle had told their group of friends last year, freshman year of high school, it was as if she had been taken back in time, with orchestras playing ballads and masks hiding everyone. There was actual dancing instead of today’s ‘dancing,’ which was honestly more like grinding into strangers with the hope of getting off.

Something about the way her friend had described it encouraged even skeptical Katie Holt to be fairly optimistic about the Ball, and she had surprised everyone – including herself – by agreeing to go with them.

When the final bell rang, and everyone bolted out of classroom, Katie was for once a part of the sea, rather than a latecomer. She wasn’t sure what it was about the dance that enticed her, but after seeing the dresses her friends and her had picked out together, she was almost just excited for that.

Allura was waiting at her locker with a wide grin, her backpack over one shoulder. “Took you long enough.” Her British accent was faint after the years she had spent here after moving with her father for some work he does. “Thought I was gunna have to wait forever.”

“I’m one of the shortest in this entire school, Lulu.” Katie rolled her eyes as she opened her locker to put her books away and grab her own backpack. “Including the new Freshmen. It’s like swimming upstream for me.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just hurry up! Elle and Shay already texted me, saying they’re on their way to my place.” Allura urged, just as Katie slammed her locker shut and reset the combination. “Father’s not home to unlock the door for them, and it’s _freezing_ outside right now.”

“Are we going to be warm for the thing?” The smaller girl asked, looping an arm through the other’s as they made their way to the front of the school.

“Of course. Elle’s said there’s like, huge fireplaces keeping the place nice and toasty, and we’ll have coats. I can also bring a small blanket or two if we really need them.” Allura reassured. “Besides, I don’t think we’ll have any thoughts of the cold during the party. It’ll be fun.”

“Yeah, from what we’ve heard of previous Balls, they’ve all sounded magical.” Katie agreed as the two headed down to the street.

Allura didn’t live too far from the school, meaning the walk to her place wasn’t far. It also meant she often slept in and still made it to homeroom on time, if not a bit rushed looking. The two chatted about the upcoming Ball, as well as homework for teachers they had classes together in.

Standing by Allura’s house were their other two friends, Romelle and Shay. Shay was on her phone, most likely texting her new boyfriend she had still yet to introduce to the group – and no, Katie wasn’t being petty about not knowing who this boy was that captured her sunshine friend, thank you very much – and Romelle was simply leaning against the door, her eyes on the street in the direction of the school, waiting to see them, and even from the distance, Katie could see her shiver in her thin long-sleeved shirt that did nothing to keep the chill air out.

“My hero! Please save me!” She cried when the two finally arrived, throwing her arms up high. “It’s so bloody cold!”

“This is why wearing multiple layers is a good idea, Romelle.” Shay says softly, tucking her phone in her pants pocket and smiling at the other two.

“I know, I know. I’m dumb. Shut up!” Romelle whined, squeaking in relief when Allura bypassed her to open the door and scurried in ahead of everyone. “Warmth! My saviour!”

Katie and the other two giggled at their friend’s antics as they followed in.

“Okay, so we have a couple hours before we have to get ready, and my father will be home by then to drive us, and he said he’ll be able to pick us up whenever.” Allura announced once the front door was shut behind everyone. “If any of you want to shower before we get ready, better do it now. I have some math I need to at least start before Ball prep begins.”

“I call the shower first!” Romelle shouted, already bolting for the second story where the bedrooms and shower all were. “You still have that bottle of my kind of shampoo, right, Allura?”

“Yeah, same place as it always is.” Allura called as she headed for the living room to start her homework, Katie and Shay close behind. “Do you two need to use the shower after Romelle?”

“Yeah, I had gym today and I still stink.” Katie wrinkled her nose. They had done weightlifting all class, and her arms felt a little noodle-y even if gym had been just after lunch. She had a rather enthusiastic teacher, as well, so there had been no way to fake an intense workout, and since the locker rooms had been taken out, all she could do was spray some of Shay’s perfume to mask the odour as best she could.

“Okay. When Romelle gets out, you can go next.” Allura flopped onto the couch, dropping her bag on the floor beside her legs.

* * *

 

Katie looked at herself in the full-body length mirror in Allura’s bedroom, feeling practically naked in the dress she wore. It was a deep green, with a bit of a train starting from her ankles to sweep on the floor, and it had been fitted to hug what little curves she had. She had no sleeves, and the halter was loose, hanging halfway down her back with a sheer pale green fabric studded with the same kind of decorations her neckline was studded with.

She kicked out one leg through the slit on the side of the dress to see her pale skin, and the flats she wore – there was no way she would wear heels like the others, even if she was going to look childishly small standing next to them now – and could only blush.

“I feel so stupid in this. You can see everything!” She bemoaned to her friends who were in various states of dress and makeup.

“Yes, that’s the point of the dress.” Romelle answered as she did mascara. “You look beautiful, Katie-kat. I would jump you if you were into girls, just remember that.”

The comment did nothing to calm Katie’s rising nerves, and her face burned as she was now flustered with no way to reply.

“She’s right, Katie.” Shay piped in, brushing her curly hair in an attempt to tame it a bit for the Ball. “The dress shows all the good stuff.”

Katie turned to look at her friends. Shay looked very pretty in her dress, a yellow with black lining for the chest and the illusion of layers for the skirt part of her dress shaping her smartly. She had her necklace and her large hoop earrings as the only jewelry she wore, while Katie herself was bare of any. Romelle had been the first to get into her dress, a flowy pale blue dress with a nice design on the top part, and she was finishing up her makeup before she would put on her mask to complete her look.

Allura was still getting into her own dress, just slipping it over her head so the hem just touched the floor of her room and her head popped up in the wide neck-hole. Her back was partially open with a pale pink sheer fabric with select areas showing off the flower designs that made up the top part of her own dress.

She sighed, looking back down at herself before she started to walk toward the vanity just as Romelle finished her makeup. “If you’re sure.”

“Of course we’re sure.” Romelle promised, smiling brightly at her with a coy wink, before going to help Allura with the zipper of her dress. “We’re your friends.”

Katie blushed again before she looked at the makeup littering the vanity, shaking her head slightly. “Okay…” She admitted quietly to herself. “Now, how does this stuff work?”

“Here, I’ll help.” Shay beckoned her over, and took control of painting makeup onto Katie. “We should probably not over-do it. A hint of eyeshadow, eyeliner, and lipgloss should be enough, right, girls?”

“Oh yea, that’s about all I used too. Except switch eyeshadow with mascara.” Romelle agreed, her arms around Allura’s waist in a close hug. “Gods, you all look so cute, I’m so gay right now!”

The other three giggled at the declaration.

“You’re always gay, Elle.” Allura tapped herself free of Romelle’s embrace. “Think you can be gay and braid my hair? Just a half thing, you know?”

Katie zoned the two girls out soon after as Shay directed her to close her eyes to smudge some eyeshadow on her lids.

When everything was finished, Katie felt like they were all about to go to prom, instead of a Halloween party, even as they put on their masks. They had chosen similar shapes, with the colours matching their dresses.

Then it was time to head out to make it to the Ball to enjoy the full time. Allura’s father took dozens of photos of them before he agreed to finally drive them halfway across town to the large historic mansion the Halloween Ball was always hosted in.

It was a creepy looking building, and by far the largest in the whole town. According to the plaque, it had once been a lord’s home, then a boarding school before it was basically abandoned. Now it was used to host various period shows, the Halloween Ball, and other historical events, although Katie had only been in the building once before. It had been a fieldtrip a couple years after it had been protected as a historical landmark for the town. She didn’t remember much of the interior except how much it creaked and freaked her out.

But that had been when she had been a child, barely in First Grade, and she had friends with her.

“You have your phone?” Allura’s father asked them as he pulled up to the nearby parking lot where a ton of people in similar dresses and coloured suits were heading into the large building. “I’ll have my volume up loud to hear even if I’m dozing off. Don’t drink anything offered to you unless you know for sure it’s safe to drink. Same goes for food.”

“Ohhh my gods, father! We know! Please don’t give us another lecture.” Allura pleaded, shooing the other girls towards the mansion. “We’ll be careful, and I’ll call you when we’re ready to get picked up.”

“Okay, sweetheart. Take care, and have fun.” Her father finally conceded, and Katie could see him put his hands up before Romelle took her arm and skipped forward excitedly until they were out of earshot of Allura and her father.

“He shouldn’t have to worry about us. They have really good security and all that.” She reassured as she, Katie, and Shay entered the threshold, some of the sparkles on her mask falling onto her cheeks and dress. “Though, yeah, we shouldn’t accept anything from strangers, unless it’s a dance. Then we can agree to that!”

Shay chuckled as they slowed down to wait for their last friend. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” She looked temporarily surprised before pulling out her phone from the hidden pockets of her dress. “Oh!”

“What?” Katie asked, looking at her curiously just as Allura stepped over the threshold towards them.

Shay’s cheeks darkened in a blush before her eyes snapped up to look around them. She wouldn’t answer until her face lit up seeing something further into the mansion, and when Katie and the others turned to see what she saw, they all saw an older teen in a pale yellow suit, with a lanky teen in dark blue beside him, both wearing simple masks over their faces that obscured just enough of their facial features Katie couldn’t figure out if she knew them or not.

Both guys were heading right over to them, and Shay broke away from them to grab the yellow-suited teen by the hand, slipping her fingers between his and everything suddenly fit into place.

Just as it clicked for her, it seemed the others, including the lanky guy, figured it out too.

“Dude, _this_ is your girlfriend?” The lanky teen gave Shay a look before a wide smile overcame the lower half of his face. “Dude!”

“This is your mysterious boyfriend, Shay?” Allura asked, smiling at the couple.

“Yeah. Sorry about not introducing him before.” Shay looked like a blushing mess, her free hand trying to cover her face before her boyfriend stopped her.

“It’s okay, I asked her to keep me a surprise until tonight.” Her boyfriend spoke kindly, smiling softly at Shay before he looked at his friend and the other girls. “Anyway, hey, I’m Hunk Garrett, Shay’s boyfriend, and the beanpole is my best friend Lance.”

Shay straightened up in almost shock and she looked between Katie and Lance before she shook her head. “Oh, right. Uhm, yeah, I’m Shay Balera, Hunk’s girlfriend, and these three are my best friends. Romelle, Allura, and the smaller one is Katie.”

The four non-couples waved hello to the others, and Katie found Lance’s eyes to be very dark and pretty, practically piercing her as the blue of the mask made them pop more. He also gave her a long look as if searching for something on her face that made her feel exposed.

“Wait, Katie.” Hunk sounded her name out before snapping a finger. “You wouldn’t happen to be the same Katie that went by Pidge in an attempt to get into the Physics Olympics?”

Katie’s eyes went wide and her face burned a dark red. No one had ever put two and two together before. “H-how?!”

Hunk chuckled. “I’ve met your brother. He was a senior last year at our school, and you two look pretty similar outside hair length and height.” He explained. “He told a bunch of us Physics Olympic hopefuls about how you made it through an entire round before someone found out you weren’t a junior or senior like you had claimed. You’re a legend because of that.”

“No way!” His friend, Lance, laughed in what seemed to be surprise, his eyes going back to her.

Katie, on the other hand was burning up. She had hoped Matt’s school would have forgotten about that little escapade back when she had been in Middle School, before even meeting her current friends.

“That’s amazing, man… Er, uh,” Lance’s words made her eyes snap up to his as he seemed to try to encourage her. “Wasn’t that a few years ago?”

“Almost three…” Katie muttered.

“Woah, so you were like, what? A freshman?”

She shook her head, her face still red, but at least the mask was hiding some of it. “Middle School. Grade Seven, uh, actually.” She coughed awkwardly, uncertain where to put her hands as she was wearing a _really_ form-fitting dress that had no place for pockets or anywhere to place her hands without crossing her arms.

“No way!” Lance sounded impressed, and a different kind of warmth snuck in with the embarrassment for a moment. “You managed to trick the school into thinking you were a junior or senior when you were like thirteen?”

“You never told us this, Katie.” Shay also sounded impressed, and a little shocked.

When Katie looked to her own friends, she saw they all were, although Romelle seemed to be struggling between smiling widely and looking shocked by the new information.

She shrugged a little helplessly. “I didn’t want to remember that failed attempt.” She admitted shyly. “I learned I just had to wait until I was finally a junior to join.”

“That’s some guts you have, Katie.” Lance commented, and the weird other warmth took over at his words.

“Really?” Katie wasn’t sure what came over her, but her voice became soft, and she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear when it fell loose.

“Yeah! I mean, you snuck into a high school, joined an extra-curricular smartie-pants thing for juniors and seniors only, tricked them into thinking you were some kid named Pidge, and only got found out after getting on the team and making it to the first round. I could never do something that gutsy at that age!” The way he spoke of what happened made Katie feel warm and tingly all over, and a shy smile overcame her face.

“It wasn’t much, really.” She said, looking down at his feet while shuffling her own shyly.

“Dude, er, Katie? That’s not ‘not much,’ you know? Hunk barely got in this year and he’s like the smartest person I’ve ever been lucky to make friends with. How high did you score to get in?”

“Uh, I think it was in the hundreds?” Katie struggled to remember as she had tried to blot out most of her Middle School experience as it hadn’t been the best time.

“Dude! Hunk said he only got to a hundred to pass to make it to the main group instead of being an alternate. That’s incredible!” Lance exclaimed, and his tone made Katie look back up at his face to see he had a spark in his eyes that sent the tingly feeling back throughout her body. “And he’s a junior now, and you weren’t even in high school yet! You must be a freaking genius!”

“Oh, uh, thanks.” Katie brushed her hair out of her face. “That’s, uh, ah, thanks for saying that.”

A small part of her tried to tell her that her friends and Lance’s friend had left them, but she couldn’t find herself to be all that nervous to be alone with this guy.

He, however, noticed and chuckled quietly and shook his head. He turned to her with a softer smile. “Have you been to this Halloween Ball before?”

Katie shook her head, and Lance’s smile grew a bit. “You’re in for a treat, then. Come on, let’s get into the ballroom. It’s still pretty early, so the orchestra isn’t tired yet of playing.”

“You’ve been to one before?” Katie asked.

“Oh yeah, since Middle school, actually.” Lance shrugged. “Guess while I was being a dumb pre-teen, you were being a really smart person, huh?”

Katie felt flustered by Lance’s compliments and couldn’t figure out how to respond. Instead, she allowed him to guide her into the mansion, even allowing him to hold her hand so they wouldn’t get separated by the crowd they navigated through.

They reached the ballroom, and Katie finally heard the orchestra playing a soft, slow song with emphasis on the woodwind melody going on. She was not a big music person, and definitely not a classical music person, but it was nice enough.

“Ah, hey, do you know how to dance?” Lance suddenly asked, his hand still in hers but neither seemed to be bothered by the warmth they gave to the other.

Katie bit her lip and shrugged. “I wasn’t really taught, so I don’t know?”

“Wanna find out?”

Katie found her mind blanking so all she did was nod and allow Lance to tug her along to the main part of the ballroom where everyone else was dancing.

“Okay, so, I’m going to put my hand on your side, and you put that hand on my shoulder, and we use our other hands to kind of lead, okay? Just follow my lead.” Lance told her, before he literally whisked her away.

Time went away as the two danced. All Katie could hear was the soft music, and Lance talking to her. She barely even heard her own answers, but clearly she wasn’t saying bad as Lance seemed to laugh and engage in the conversation more and more. Katie found she really liked hearing him speak and laugh.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration that the two danced the night away, and when they finally stopped, Katie had never felt so dizzy and lightheaded before, but Lance helped her to a seat, and next thing she knew Allura, Romelle, Hunk, and Shay were at the table she was at with all-knowing expressions on their features, even when she couldn’t understand what they knew that she didn’t.

Not that she couldn’t understand, really. She did, but it would only take until she was back at Allura’s place to sleep over for the weekend with the other girls, and she would receive a text from Lance blatantly asking her out for her to figure it out. Her heart would pound and every place Lance had touched would alight on some internal fire that she wanted to feel again and again.

Romelle would announce loudly to the morning that Katie found herself a boyfriend, before being pummelled by pillows by said girl as the other two laughed.

But for now, she was oblivious of the reason for her warm face, her lightheaded feeling, or how fast it had been for Lance to utterly take her breath away.

**Author's Note:**

> I very much got this idea from that old Hillary Duff Cinderella movie.


End file.
